Free Republic

PHOENIX (AP) - Since losing the presidency, John McCain has focused on his work in the Senate. His voting record has improved greatly this legislative session missing only nine votes, or 2.5 percent of the 353 Senate roll-call votes through Saturday. While running for the White House during the 2007 and 2008 sessions of the 110th Congress, McCain missed 420 votes, or 63.9 percent, of 657 opportunities.

Attempts to locate a statement or press release from Senator John McCain concerning Climategate have, so far, met with negative results. Senator McCain’s website indicates that his most recent press release (Oct 19) was a joint statement issued with Senator Russ Feingold (D.WI) that begins: "A day after a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers displayed 'gross negligence' that contributed to the breaching of the levees in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, U.S. Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ), who have led efforts to reform the Army Corps of Engineers, released the following...

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told CNSNews.com that President Barack Obama was giving 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed “his wish” by giving him a trial in federal civilian court instead of trying him before a military tribunal. McCain was asked on Nov. 19 whether the administration might have to produce Mohammed’s CIA interrogators if the terrorist’s defense lawyers call them as witnesses. McCain said the answer was not clear because Obama had opened the civilian justice system to enemy combatants, a move that raised myriad problems and gave Khalid Sheik Mohammed, or KSM, what he wanted.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday night that the attacks on Sarah Palin, his former vice presidential running mate, are unlike anything he has ever seen. “I’m entertained and sometimes a little angry when I see this constant, vicious attacks by people on the left,” McCain said of Palin during an interview with Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren. “I’ve never seen anything like it in all the years that I’ve been in politics,” McCain continued, “the viciousness and the personalization of the attacks on Sarah Palin.”

A top adviser on Hispanic issues to John McCain’s presidential campaign said Sunday that a joint interview with McCain and Sarah Palin planned for Univision last fall had to be canceled because Palin was unprepared to discuss Latin America policy. “She did not feel comfortable speaking about issues regarding Hispanics and Latin America,” GOP consultant Ana Navarro told Univision anchor Jorge Ramos in an interview. “Those are not topics that come up frequently in Alaska. So she asked to cancel the interview and, unfortunately, you were already there.”

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) is unlikely to run in a GOP primary against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), let alone win, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Monday. Kyl, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said he expects the former congressman, who's been mulling a primary challenge to McCain's right next year, to carry on his activities as host of a radio show, and not as a candidate.

A new Rasmussen poll shows the Arizona Senator in a dead heat with potential GOP primary challenger J.D. Hayworth. BY ALYSSIA FINLEY John McCain may have been the GOP's national standard-bearer just a year ago, but now he's in electoral trouble at home. And this time no one can claim it's because of Sarah Palin. A new Rasmussen poll shows the Arizona Senator in a dead heat with potential GOP primary challenger J.D. Hayworth. Mr. Hayworth served as a congressman from 1995 to 2006, when he lost in a squeaker to Democratic Tempe Mayor Harry Mitchell, who prevailed by hounding...

LOGAN, UTAH Forever a part of American electoral history, Joe Wurzelbacher -- better known as "Joe the Plumber" -- is hitting back at the media for its coverage of him over the past year, telling Editor & Publisher the reporting has been "poorly done." In a wide-ranging interview with E&P, Wurzelbacher also shared his thoughts on Sarah Palin (he hopes she doesn't run for president in 2012), Palin's references to him in her new book, and the charge that he has capitalized off the publicity that has come with being Joe the Plumber. He also called President Obama's ideology "un-American."...

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., warned of major cuts to Medicare and large tax increases as the U.S. Senate neared its first votes this weekend on health care reform. McCain opposes health reforms pushed by Democrats and President Barack Obama that would create a public-option government system to cover the uninsured and operate alongside private insurance companies. "I don't think Americans really understand the scam that's going on here of beginning to collect taxes, tax increases and Medicare cuts of approximately $1 trillion beginning 40 days from now," McCain said Saturday. "In other words, the first of January, according to...

(snip) The Republican senator did say that Obama is charismatic, adding that “he is able to inspire, and I admire that talent.” “Obama gave the world the message that the United States wants to cooperate,” he said. (snip)

PHOENIX -- A new statewide poll suggests John McCain could get a fight in his bid for another term in the U.S. Senate. And it would come from his own party. A telephone survey of 570 likely Republican primary voters conducted by Rasmussen Reports found McCain the favorite of 45 percent of those questioned. But former Congressman and current radio talk show host J.D. Hayworth was backed by 43 percent, well within the 4 percentage point margin of error for the poll. Hayworth told Capitol Media Services late Friday he has not made a decision, saying he is in the...

In October of 2008, Senator Obama's campaign accused Senator John McCain of planning to gut Medicare. ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (AFP) — Barack Obama's White House campaign Monday accused John McCain of plotting to impose savage cuts on government-run health care programs that insure the elderly and the poor.It was the latest attack from the Democrat's camp over an emotive issue that is taking on new urgency at a time when many Americans fear losing their jobs and thus the health care coverage that comes from their employers... "This plan would be a disaster. It would dramatically reduce the quality of...

McCain: "Take your AARP membership card, cut it in half and send it back to AARP because they have betrayed you."

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is pledging to fight health care reform efforts as the Senate prepares to hold its first full-chamber vote on health reforms Saturday. The Obama administration and Democrats want to create a government-run system as a public option to offer insurance to uninsured and operate alongside private providers. McCain and U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., oppose the public option. In an e-mail to supporters, McCain pledged to fight the public option, saying it would drive up costs for consumers and widen the federal deficit.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- U.S. Sen. John McCain says he enjoyed reading Sarah Palin's new memoir and says the tension between his campaign aides and hers is no big deal. But McCain likened the tension of a campaign to combat in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum.

While on the board of a Chicago-based charity, Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program he is now trying to push through Congress as president. In 2000 and 2001, while Barack Obama served as a board member for a Chicago-based charitable foundation, he helped to fund a pioneering carbon trading exchange that is likely to fill a critical role in the controversial cap-and-trade carbon reduction scheme that President Obama is now trying to push rapidly through Congress. During those two years, the Joyce Foundation gave nearly...

...So why the run on the CoinStar machines? Answer: Those piggy banks (or coffee cans or cookie tins or whatever) are no longer just fun little ways of saving back a few bucks. They’re grocery money, or school supplies, or maybe the electric bill. People are being weighed down with bills they can’t pay and the load is getting heavier. I took my big $22.68 and bought food. It was either that or draw money against my next paycheck. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out this is a bad sign. People are running out of money. And...

AUSTIN – Here's what I did not hear at the annual confab of Republican governors held here this week: The words socialist, extremist, or government takeover. With the focus on jobs, jobs and jobs, the only red meat was the Texas barbecue. And by design, there was no Obama-bashing. [snip] Barbour cautioned Republican candidates to refrain from attacking the president, period: "People want the president to succeed; good Lord, they want the country to succeed, and particularly the first African-American president has a lot of goodwill. . . . We need to be careful, we need to treat the president...

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Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have been working overtime to craft a climate bill that can attract significant GOP support. But they aren’t exactly scoring points with their mutual best friend in the Senate, John McCain. “Their start has been horrendous,” McCain said Thursday. “Obviously, they’re going nowhere.” McCain has emerged as a vocal opponent of the climate bill — a major reversal for the self-proclaimed maverick who once made defying his party on global warming a signature issue of his career.

John McCain may have been the Republican Party's national standard bearer last year, but now it looks like he may have a hard time just hanging on to his Senate seat. A new Rasmussen Reports poll of likely 2010 GOP primary voters in Arizona finds the longtime incumbent in a virtual tie with potential challenger, J.D. Hayworth. McCain earns 45% of the vote, while Hayworth picks up 43%. Another candidate, anti-illegal immigration activist Chris Simcox, is picking up 4%. Hayworth, 51, a conservative former U.S. congressman who now is a popular radio talk show host in Phoenix, is reportedly interested...

John McCain's problems inside his own party were hardly overcome by his place as its nominee, Rasmussen reports. The new poll shows McCain up just two points, 45% to 43%, in a hypothetical contest with former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, now a popular local radio talker, who's mulling a bid.

Trouble for McCain in 2010? By Tony Romm - 11/20/09 09:21 AM ET A new poll perhaps foretells of a tough primary fight for Arizona Sen. John McCain (R). In a hypothetical match-up against former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, who is reportedly considering a 2010 bid, McCain holds only a two-point lead, besting his potential opponent 45 percent to his 43 percent, according to Rasmussen. That means Hayworth is already polling within the margin of error -- a tough spot for any incumbent to be in, especially one who formerly won his party's presidential nomination. Nevertheless, Rasmussen is quick to point...

Former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said Thursday he has read Sarah Palin's book and has no regrets about picking her as a running mate. (snip) He also said if Mrs. Palin decides to run for president in 2012 and becomes the Republican Party nominee he would vote for her. "I hope she has every success," Mr. McCain said. "She's still pretty popular."

Tanker Wars: Round 3 Starts by Jed Babbin, Human Events, 11/19/2009 Last year, the Government Accountability Office overturned the Air Force’s decision to buy the replacement for its aged KC-135 airborne tanker from the European Air Defense Systems (EADS)-Northrop Grumman consortium that offered the French Airbus-330. The GAO’s decision, as I wrote extensively then, was based in large part on the Airbus’s physical limitations. The aircraft simply cannot fly the tanker mission in accordance with longstanding Air Force requirements (read why). The Air Force’s decision to buy the Airbus despite those failures was such an incident of intellectual whoredom that...

Former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said Thursday he has read Sarah Palin's book and has no regrets about picking her as a running mate. "I felt honored to have Sarah," said Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican. "There's no doubt she energized our party and America. She's doing it today." His praised came one day after defending top campaign advisers Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace, whom Mrs. Palin criticized in her book, "Going Rogue: An American Life." Mr. McCain said during the interview Thursday with The Washington Times' "American's Morning News" radio show that Mrs. Palin is a "political force in...

Bipartisan Effort to Enforce Reforms They Enacted in Wake of Hurricane Katrina. Washington, D.C. ­– Two years after enacting critical reforms of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ) are asking the Administration why little progress has been made to implement them. Those reforms, passed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, made key changes to strengthen the Corps and ensure that it uses its limited resources wisely. One of those reforms was a requirement that the Corps’ planning guidelines, Planning Principles & Guidelines (P&G), be modernized. In a letter sent today to...

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WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator John McCain on Wednesday strongly defended the top advisers from his 2008 presidential campaign in the face of sharp criticism from his vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin. McCain, in a telephone interview with Reuters, singled out campaign manager Steve Schmidt and senior adviser Nicolle Wallace for praise after Palin blasted the pair in her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life." "There's been a lot of dust flying around in the last few days and I just wanted to mention that I have the highest regard for Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace...

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told National Review on Tuesday that she’s considering an endorsement in the Florida’s Republican U.S. Senate primary between Gov. Charlie Crist and former House speaker Marco Rubio: She says she’s had a chance to look at the Crist-Rubio race “just on the surface.” But she adds, “I’m just being asked about it really in the last week or two, so I’ll dig more into it. I’ll find out what the guys are holding in terms of positions and see where maybe I can help.” Keep in mind that her 2008 running mate, John...

Depictions ‘took place entirely in her imagination,’ says Wallace. NBC NEWS and NEWS SERVICES NEW YORK - Former McCain campaign senior adviser Nicolle Wallace says Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" is "based on fabrications," and that the basis for Palin’s depictions of her and former McCain campaign director Steve Schmidt as villains "took place entirely in her imagination." In a statement to The Rachel Maddow Show, the former McCain spokesperson repeatedly used the word "fiction" to describe Palin's narrative and echoed criticisms by other former McCain staffers. "She [Palin] probably has a legitimate complaint that things could have been better...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) urged a group of chief executives on Tuesday to think of ways to help small businesses and extend credit to help heal the economy. The Arizona Republican acknowledged that these aren't the responsibilities of big businesses, but he talked about how angry Americans are about financial institutions getting bailed out while they are struggling, and he said access to credit is a big issue.

Despite the fact that Sarah Palin uses her new book to air her grievances with John McCain's presidential campaign team, McCain reportedly said he enjoyed reading Palin's book. "I hope she sells lots of them," McCain told the Hill newspaper.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who spoke to The Hill Monday evening, denied Sarah Palin's allegation that his campaign stuck her with a $50,000 legal bill to pay for the cost of vetting her as a potential vice presidential candidate. McCain said the bill was for legal work related to allegations that Palin made improper use of her influence as Alaska's governor to press for the dismissal of a state trooper named Mike Wooten. Wooten was embroiled in a custody dispute with Palin's younger sister, Molly McCann. "That was addressed by Trevor Potter," said McCain, "That was over the troopergate." In...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats and Republicans in Congress are working together to craft an immigration reform bill that could become law as early as next year, a senior White House adviser said on Sunday. That legislation could create a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already in the United States, David Axelrod, senior advisory to President Barak Obama, told CNN's State of the Union with John King. "I think some good work is being done on both sides of the aisle to achieve that," Axelrod said, referring to the partisan divide on Capitol Hill.

So far there's video of Sarah Palin talking about Levi Johnston, why she stepped down as Governor of Alaska and her Katie Couric interview. Or as Mrs. Palin calls her: The Perky One. Here's the Oprah Palin interview videos.How do you think she did? What about Oprah..was she 'fair?'

John McCain has asked his former campaign aides not to speak out against the charges Sarah Palin levels in her book, NBC news reports. This news comes after a number of former staffers anonymously blasted Palin's recount of the 2008 campaign. "John McCain offered her the opportunity of a lifetime, and during the campaign it seems that, for all of her mistakes, she is searching for people to blame," an aide said last week. "We don't need to go through this again." Even as NBC reported McCain's request, they included another swipe at her book from a former campaign aide....

(snip) Most of all, I remember five long decades when, for all our many differences, Americans nonetheless maintained a bipartisan commitment to the freedom and security of our allies. And together, we in the West kept faith with those on the other side of the walls of that world struggle, confident that they wanted the same things we did – liberty, equal justice, an opportunity to prosper by their own talents, and a chance to live under the rule of law, not under the thumbs of tyrants. This, my friends, is what today’s anniversary is all about. The Berlin Wall...

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senator John McCain (R AZ) issued the following statement on the Obama Administration’s decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and four other Al-Qaeda terrorists suspected of planning and executing the September 11th attacks in the United States Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York: “I am extremely disappointed with the Obama Administration’s decision to try in U.S. civilian courts the Al-Qaeda terrorists who planned, supported, and conducted the September 11th attacks. These terrorists are not common criminals. They are war criminals, who committed acts of war against our citizens and those of...

Senator gets an earful on economy, healthcare. BY SUZANNE ADAMS KINGMAN - U.S. Sen. John McCain was treated to a packed house of feisty Mohave County residents Friday afternoon at the County Administration Building. Most of the comments centered on the economy and healthcare, but McCain also spoke of the troops, the Fort Hood shooting and Social Security. "We Republicans have to reestablish our conservative principles to the American people," McCain said. "I see a degree of activism, a degree of involvement and a degree of anger out there that I've never seen before in the years that I've served....

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - John McCain's former presidential campaign manager Steve Schmidt is the latest McCain adviser to cry foul over accusations Sarah Palin has penned in her yet to be released memoir "Going Rogue." Excerpts obtained by The Huffington Post characterize Schmidt in an unfavorable light, particularly in reference to the prank phone call Palin received from someone pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Right away, the phones started ringing," Palin writes. "One of the first calls was Schmidt, and the force of his screaming blew my hair back. 'How can anyone be so stupid?! Why would the president...

A former top adviser and spokeswoman to John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign is pushing back against comments reportedly made by Sarah Palin in her new book. Nicolle Wallace tells CNN that Palin's account of an ill-fated interview with CBS's Katie Couric during the 2008 presidential campaign is not true.

“Going Rogue,” the title of Sarah Palin’s erratic new memoir, comes from a phrase used by a disgruntled McCain aide to describe her going off-message during the campaign: among other things, for breaking with the campaign over its media strategy, its decision to pull out of Michigan and for speaking out about reports that the Republican Party had spent more than $150,000 on fancy designer duds for her and her family. In fact, the most sustained and vehement barbs in this book are directed not at Democrats or liberals or the press, but at the McCain campaign. The very campaign...

(CNN) – Sen. John McCain has already received a signed copy of Sarah Palin's new memoir "Going Rogue," but the former Republican presidential nominee hasn't read it yet. "I've just received a signed copy from her yesterday, so I will read it with interest," the senator told reporters Friday in his home state of Arizona. While the book contains a healthy dose of score-settling aimed at former McCain campaign aides, the senator stressed that he was "proud and honored" to have had Palin as his running mate. "One of the things about campaigns that lose, there's always mistakes made and...

Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker and purveyor of the GOP "Contract With America'' that helped his party win control of the House after President Bill Clinton's election, says GOP chairman Michael Steele has started work on a new framework for 2010 that he is calling "First principles.'' "I've been talking with Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, '' Gingrich said today, speaking with students at C-SPAN's Cable Center Class. "He is developing a first principles model that I think is a very exciting , positive step in the right direction,'' said Gingrich, who has said that he will...

Nicolle Wallace: She is who we thought she was. Nicolle Wallace: She is who we thought she was. HER TURN! Fri Nov 13 2009 07:27:12 ET Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin Chapter Four; Section 8, pages 255-257 By the third week in September, a “Free Sarah” campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp’s decision to keep me, my family and friends back home, and my governor’s staff all bottled up. Meanwhile, the question of which news outlet would land the first interview was a big deal, as...

As you probably have heard, the AP snagged a copy of my memoir, Going Rogue, before its Tuesday release. And as is expected, the AP and a number of subsequent media outlets are erroneously reporting the contents of the book. Keep your powder dry, read the book, and enjoy it! Lots of great stories about my family, Alaska, and the incredible honor it was to run alongside Senator John McCain. We can't wait to hit the road and meet so many on the book tour! See you in Michigan first... - Sarah Palin

By the third week in September, a “Free Sarah” campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp’s decision to keep me, my family and friends back home, and my governor’s staff all bottled up. Meanwhile, the question of which news outlet would land the first interview was a big deal, as it always is with a major party candidate. From the beginning, Nicolle [Wallace] pushed for Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News. The campaign’s general strategy involved coming out with a network anchor, someone they felt had treated John well...

HER TURN! Fri Nov 13 2009 07:27:12 ET Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin Chapter Four; Section 8, pages 255-257 By the third week in September, a “Free Sarah” campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp’s decision to keep me, my family and friends back home, and my governor’s staff all bottled up. Meanwhile, the question of which news outlet would land the first interview was a big deal, as it always is with a major party candidate. From the beginning, Nicolle [Wallace] pushed for Katie Couric and...